


Swimming Lessons

by crassenoughtocare



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-20
Updated: 2011-09-20
Packaged: 2017-10-23 22:02:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/255480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crassenoughtocare/pseuds/crassenoughtocare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exactly what it says on the tin!<br/>Warning: Sassy Aradia and fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Swimming Lessons

“You’re going to drown me, aren’t you?” Aradia stood on the dock, arms folded across her chest, scowling at the seadweller next to her.

“No I’m not gonna drown you, that’d be fuckin pointless. Plus Fef would never forgive me if I did.” Eridan said plainly, shrugging his shoulders as if that were a perfectly sound reason to trust him. “You said you wanted to learn how to swim, so don’t get all pissy now that I’m teachin’ you.” Aradia took a deep breath, uncrossed her arms and nodded at him.

“Fine. Sorry. But you do understand my apprehension, right?” He shrugged and made a face. Cod, so he had done some terrible things and had a history of genocidal tendencies and also killed some people during the game, but its not like he was a bad person or anything. Just an average sea troll. And its not like he killed that many people. Okay, so maybe it was a lot, but not as many as Vriska. Stupid spiderbitch would always have a higher body count than him. Unless... No. No way. Aradia had to live. She had talked to him when no one else would, hung out with him multiple times, tried to knock some sense into him, asked him to teach her how to swim, and was pretty okay for a land dweller. Not that he would ever say that out loud. The immortality thing also helped her chances of survival. So no drowning.

“Well what are you waiting for, land dweller? Get in!” He pointed a commanding finger at the water. Aradia clenched her hands into fists, setting her jaw. She turned to look at Eridan, shaking her head. The fear in her eyes was exciting and pitiful. So in a rare moment of genuineness, he lowered his eyes to hers, and put his hands on her shoulders. “Ara, I’m not lettin’ you drown.” When she nodded, he struck, grabbing her around the waist and tossing her into the water.

She barely had time to gasp before hitting the water. Encouragingly, she came back up, splashing and flailing and shrieking at him. He dove in gracefully after her, wrapping her arms around her waist until she calmed down.

“If I wasn’t holding on to you for dear life I would slap you.” Her brow knitted seriously, but her threat held little promise. A hint of maroon stained her cheeks. She was quite literally out of her element, all of the grace and poise she had on land and in flight was gone once she hit the water.

“You didn’t drown so shut it. Now.” He pried her arms from around his neck, holding her elbows. “Move your legs circular like.” With a nod towards the water, he demonstrated. She followed suit, clumsily kicking her legs to try and hold herself up.

“Hey it works!” She beamed at him, a little shaky, but certainly not on her way to drowning.

“A course its workin, I’m a fuckin expert.” His attempt at a suave hair toss just slapped his limp curls down into his eyes, eliciting an unstifled giggle from Aradia. He did his best to scowl at her, but the hair in his face made that awfully hard, so he opted for the always mature action of sticking his tongue out at her.

“Watch that tongue of yours, or you might get it bitten off.” She crooned, inches from his face.

“Yeah right, like your dull chompers could do shit to me.” He countered, baring his jagged teeth at her. Aradia clearly did not know what he could do to her, or if she did, she didn’t care.

“Now do that with your arms.” One of her arms was freed from his grasp, moving in circles to keep herself afloat while he smoothed back his hair. Aradia let go of his other arm to reach up and slap his hair out of place again. Still unsure of her treading skills, she clamped a hand onto his shoulder as he scoffed, highly offended at her attack on his hair. “Cod damned land dwellers, keep your filthy hands off my hair.”

“Stop being so vain and I will!” She offered her best teasing smile despite her otherwise awkward body movements.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Lay on your back.” Aradia looked at him blankly. “Floatin!” Her eyebrows raised skeptically. Eridan sighed and placed his hands around her on her shoulder blades and lower back. She neither stiffened nor pulled away, a good sign in his book. “You won’t drown. Just lean back and keep your fuckin chest up.” She huffed lightly, then rolled back on his hands to halfway float in the water. “Keep your head back or you’ll fuck it up.” He tipped her chin back with a finger.

Soon enough she settled in, relaxing into the water and his hand on her shoulders. He laid back next to her, gazing up at the stars and three moons of their new world. For a while they were quiet, still and peaceful in the sea. He felt something brush against his hand, and shifted his eyes to see her fingers touching his. For a split, awkward second their eyes met, then snapped back to the sky. Slowly, they slipped their hands together and laced their fingers.

Her hands were soft, he noted, a bit surprised because Archaeology and exploring didn’t seem like the sort of work that would spare her calluses. Gloves. She was always wearing those big ugly gloves that he had suggested be burned on more than one occasion. Now he was glad she hadn’t taken his advice. Possibly the only good thing he had seen her wear in quite some time was the bathing suit. The two piece fit her very nicely and was clearly made for her by Kanaya. This particular style accentuated some of her more, erm, attractive features. The ones that weren’t on her face. Not that she was pretty, just decent for a land dwelling lowblood.

“This is nice.” Her voice broke him from his increasingly dangerous train of thought, though it was soft enough to be a thought of Aradia’s not meant to be said aloud.

“Yeah. Floatin’s nice.” He kept his eyes on the moons.

“Well, floating too, but I meant hanging out with you. You’re an ass, don’t get me wrong, but you are enjoyable company.” Oh.

“I like you too. Hanging out with you. Even if you are a lowblood.” Instead of lecturing him on blood prejudice like she normally did, Aradia just scoffed and squeezed his hand.

“Highbloods....” She muttered, under her breath, but loud enough for him to hear. Eridan didn’t have to turn to see her smiling. Something made him let go of her hand to gently pull her in around the waist. They stayed afloat, arms behind each others back.  
“Ready to go back in?” He asked,

“Sure, there’s always plenty of time to float and swim tomorrow.” She fell out of her float, stumbling on her way to treading water before he took her arms and wrapped them around the front of his neck, pulling her against his back. He swiftly made the trip back to the dock, letting her climb up first before following.

“So, um tomorrow then?” Eridan asked, not quite looking at her as she toweled off.

“As long as that works for you! This was fun. You’re a better teacher than I imagined.” She paused for a moment, then took an odd half step toward him, her face suddenly serious.

“Uh. Thanks. It jus-mmph!” The rest of his sentence was completely forgotten as she grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him into a kiss. When the initial shock passed, he melted against her, completely unsure what to do, but more than happy to let her lead. When she pulled away a few seconds later, he was just getting the idea to put his hands on her waist. “That. That was nice. Wanna do it again?” She laughed and put a hand on his chest.

“Maybe later. I should get back to my hive.” She tossed her towel over her shoulder, maroon coloring her cheeks.

“I’ll walk you there! I mean its dangerous out there for girls. To be walkin. Alone, I mean.” His hand rubbed the back of his neck, unsure if this was the right thing to do. Everyone knew Aradia was one of the most capable people around, was it insulting to ask to walk her home under the pretense of keeping her safe?

“I’d like that. But everyone will see, you know.” A simple test.

“Yeah. I don’t really care. If they say anythin I’ll beat the shit out a ‘em.” She smiled at him, taking his hand to start them towards her hive.

“Defending being seen like this with a girl like me? Why, Mr Ampora!” Her voice slipped in to an over dramatic imitation of the lady in that god awful human movie they had watched. Absconding with the wind, or something. “You might not be a complete asshole after all.”

“No, I am. Completely insufferable. But you like it.” She rolled her eyes, twining their fingers together.

“A little bit, yes.” With that they padded across the sand, toward the new start they had been granted.


End file.
